Blackwing Defender (Kane's Mountains Book 1) (14 page)

Kill them.

Logan startled awake. Breath ragged, he stared up at the ceiling of Winter’s motel room. His bear was restless, and the edges of his vision were tinged in red. He only got like this when he was about to kill.

He sat up fast and scanned the room for Winter. God, let her be safe. Safe from me. Safe from…

Kill them.

Logan frowned and rubbed his hands over his eyes. A truck engine started up outside. He recognized it as Winter’s. Old, wheezing engine that needed work. That truck was so her. She clung to things with a vice-like loyalty.

Logan padded to the window and pushed the curtain aside just in time to see her driving away.

Hurry. Kill them.

Fuck, he really was losing his mind. Broken bear, broken Logan, but soon it would be all over. A vision of Winter mourning his death flashed across his mind. He hoped she would be okay.

Where was Winter going at the crack of dawn, and without waking him? Maybe she was leaving so she didn’t have to say goodbye. He wasn’t good at goodbyes either.

Her suitcase was open, her clothes scattered, but he’d memorized her things in the way he’d been trained to do. He had memorized every detail about this place, about his room, the office, the cars and license plates of the D-Team and the A-Team.

Fucking kill them.

Logan shook his head hard. Something felt wrong. Off. His skin rippled with gooseflesh, and he had the urge to move. To do something. Anything.

Desperate for a chore, he readied for the day in a rush and glared at his reflection in the mirror as he brushed his teeth. His eyes were the brightest he’d ever seen them, but why? Because today was his last day on earth? Maybe.

“No. Kill them,” he growled around the toothbrush.

What the fuck, his bear could use him to talk?

“Logan, save her. She needs us.”

All his hair lifted on his body. With only a moment of hesitation, Logan spat in the sink and rinsed as fast as he could. He grabbed his keys off the table and bolted out of the room.

Winter was going to see the dragons. She was going to plead for his life, or try to kill Dark Kane…something. He had to protect her from them. Fire, teeth, claws, ashes, ashes.

“Come on!” he yelled as his truck skidded around a turn.

The mountains were beautiful in the morning light, and he would’ve taken a moment to enjoy the last dawn of his life if there wasn’t some bone-deep instinct telling him he was going to be too late.

Hurry.

“I’m fucking hurrying!”

Woods and rich greenery blurred by as he wound the mountain roads beside the snaking river. Almost there.

Kill them.

The dragons? God, how could he kill dragons?

But to protect our Winter?

Logan gripped the steering wheel so hard it bent under his grip. He had to keep his skin until he escaped the truck. He had to hold it together until he got to the dragons.

Through the thick tree canopy, a ball of fire shot up into the sky and exploded as it reached the clouds. A line of smoke was all that remained. Why would one of the dragon’s blast a fireball up into the heavens? Unless…

Unless it was a call for help.

“Fuck!” Logan sailed down the steep entrance to Kane’s land and over the bridge. He felt like he was going in slow motion. He gunned it up the last gravel hill and then slammed on the brakes when he hit the clearing.

What he saw made no sense. Two Bengal tigers were circling a battle, one white tiger lay on the ground, matted with red, staring vacantly. And in the center was a pair of grizzly bears, brawling, roaring, clawing at—oh, God.

A sleek black panther with ferocious gold eyes was fighting for her life. No, not just her life. She was poised over two limp bodies. She was crouched above Rowan and Kane, trying to keep the grizzlies from them. She slapped viciously, ripping into one of the bruin’s necks. She was a weapon in motion, enraged, desperate. His loyal Winter was going to die for the dragons.

Logan slammed on the brakes and shoved the door open before he even put it in park.

Rage pumped through his veins as his bear ripped out of his skin.

Kill them. Kill them all.

He charged, every step fueled by hate and bloodlust. Winter was bleeding. He could smell it on the air. He could practically taste it, and for every drop of her blood they’d spilled, he would make them pay in agony.

One of the tigers hissed and leapt at him, but he swatted it away like it was nothing. A tree in the woods cracked loudly with the force of the asshole’s body, but Logan was already focused on the next. He gave his back to the second tiger in desperation to rip the grizzlies off Winter. Pain raked down his back, but he didn’t give a fuck about anything but the pitch black bear he’d zeroed in on. The one with his teeth deep in Winter’s shoulder.

Logan barreled into the attackers, pulling them with him and away from Winter and the dragons. Everything smelled like blood. Winter had done good, hurt them, punished them, and now he would end them. Not cleanly, but like they deserved instead. Dishonorable deaths for dishonorable monsters. He raked his claws down the belly of one, spilling his guts and rendering him helpless. The next got a jugular shot, deep into the muscle, nearly severing his damn head so his shifter healing wouldn’t work fast enough to fix him.

Logan’s head was filled with the sounds of pain and the scent of blood and fur. He moved onto the next before one was expired because he knew the kill shots. He knew they were dying in piles behind him, one by one until there was a single wolf in the woods that remained. He had the bright green eyes of one of the A-Team. He turned to bolt, but fuck no to that. Logan chased him down, pounding his feet faster and faster behind him until her leapt on the back of the gray wolf. Logan snapped his neck in two, then shook his powerful head and tossed him into a pile of nothing on the ground. After the wolf’s eyes dimmed with death, Logan stood on his hind legs and roared as long and as loud as he could to expel the rage still built up in his bloodstream.

****

When Logan’s roar shattered the woods, Winter flinched from her pacing and lowered to her belly in fear. Oh, his bear was the monster she remembered, but even more terrifying. Now she truly believed his claim that he wouldn’t have killed her. If he’d really wanted to, Logan could’ve ripped his truck apart panel by panel until she was in a bloody mound like the rest of the A-Team. The massacre had taken only seconds. Logan had been swift, skilled at killing. The last living grizzly, the black one who had ripped into her shoulder in an attempt to get to the dragons under her heaved one final breath and went still.

Logan had been so fast he’d blurred from one death blow to the next.

Rowan and Kane were bleeding from the claw marks Winter hadn’t been able to protect them from. She needed to Change back so she could care for them, but the panther didn’t want to give up her body yet.

Logan had saved her. He’d saved the dragons. She wanted to meet his animal face-to-face in this braver body she had right now. The one with claws and teeth and weapons.

Logan lumbered from the woods, more massive than any grizzly she’d ever seen, wild or shifter. His chocolate-colored fur shook with each powerful step, and his long black claws dug into the earth as he strode toward her.

He. Felt. Terrifying.

Be brave. He’s ours. He won’t hurt us.

Crouching, she approached him slowly, but not directly. She slunk this way and that, keeping her neck exposed, but he didn’t slow at all. In fact, he sped up. Would he charge? Would he kill her, too? Was he still wrapped up in the bloodlust she’d seen in his eyes when he’d single-handedly put down the A-Team? All but the white tiger. That kill was hers, and it would haunt her.

When Logan picked his pace up to a trot, she lowered to her belly and waited for him to eat her. He didn’t, though. He stopped in front of her and ran his head down her side with such force, she toppled over.

If she could cry with joy and relief in this body, she would’ve. But all she had in her repertoire was a soft mewling sound as she pushed up on her hind legs and wrapped her paws around his neck. She extended her claws into his thick neck to steady herself and ran her tongue up his face, cleaning the blood, showing him the affection he deserved. She was still breathing because of him.

He wrapped a massive paw around her back and stilled, allowing her to clean the other side of his face. And when she was finished, he pressed his nose against the bite mark on her shoulder and the claw marks up her back. They would scar, but they weren’t fatal. Already her shifter healing was working to cinch up her skin.

Everything hurt, but that was okay. She would rather feel pain than nothing. God, that had been so close.

Above them, a pair of raven shifters flew, and a great snowy owl circled up near the clouds. Three giant bear shifters loped out of the woods to the west, and suddenly, the sky was blotted out by an enormous green dragon with gold scales along her stomach. Harper and her Bloodrunners were here. She landed in the clearing, clicking her firestarter in warning as she circled Kane and Rowan’s limp bodies, shaking the earth with each step. Logan roared his own warning to back the fuck off, and Winter crouched over their bodies protectively. She’d heard of the Bloodrunners, but she didn’t know them, and right now, the Blackwing Dragons were at their most vulnerable. A black sports car pulled up, and Emma, Beast and Dustin piled out, looking around the clearing in shock and wariness.

Harper shrank into her human form. Straight-backed, naked, and furious, she glared at the piles of carnage in a trail that led to the woods. “Change back,” she demanded.

Logan was pacing now, bumping Winter’s side on each tight pass

“It’s okay,” Rowan whispered, her eyes wide. “Harper, they saved us.”

A long horrifying rumble emanated from Kane, but his eyes were still closed, his breathing still steady. The air cracked with dark power that hurt Winter’s stomach, and Kane’s skin cracked on his arms, then cinched together, then cracked again wider, like his dragon would force his way out of him at any moment. Whatever was happening inside of Dark Kane was bad.

Winter Changed back in a rush, and behind her, Logan tucked his bear away, too.

Harper knelt down near Rowan and lifted her head in her lap. “What happened?”

“The A-Team… They weren’t here to join our crew. They were here to end it.” Rowan was shaking badly, from the meds or from adrenaline, or maybe both. A tear slipped from her eye as she rolled her head and looked at her mate. “They put our dragons to sleep. Harper, The Darkness doesn’t like being put to sleep. Not after being dormant for so long. Everyone needs to leave.”

“The Darkness?” Dustin asked, his eyes glowing as he paced, gaze locked on Kane. He was snarling, like he wanted to attack. “He calls his dragon The fucking Darkness?”

“Get in the car,” Beast told Emma.

When Dustin stayed, glaring at Kane’s limp body, Beast grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and shoved him toward the car.

“What about you?” Winter asked Rowan in a worried whisper. “Will he hurt you?”

“No,” she said. “But I’m the only one who can keep The Darkness from burning the mountains again. Winter, thank you for staying. For fighting. For keeping us safe.”

Winter looked at the claw marks on Rowan’s arms and shook her head, disappointed in herself for not being better, bigger, more dominant. Rowan would have scars like her now.

“Go on,” Rowan said. “Kane will be eating ashes today, and I don’t want any of you around when he does.”

Winter looked up at Harper and backed away, exposing her neck. And when she reached Logan, Winter slipped her hand into his offered one. He’d been silent except for the constant growl in his throat. All Winter could feel was his bear.

“See you soon, Rowan,” Winter promised over her shoulder.

“Winter,” Rowan called weakly, stopping them in their tracks.

“Yeah?” Winter asked, turning.

“My friends call me Roe.”

Winter smiled and swallowed down the thick emotion in her throat. “See you soon, Roe.”

Kane’s Mountains smelled like fresh soot and smoke. The wind whipped Winter’s hair around as she stood near a long scorch mark where Logan had dropped the A-Team two days ago.

Two days? It felt like so much longer. Winter cuddled her jacket closer. All of the worrying and the nightmares over killing that tiger shifter made every minute feel like ten. She’d stopped trying to sleep completely, but that hadn’t lifted the concerns over Kane’s threat.

He could still kill Logan.

Logan slipped his strong hands over her shoulders and kissed the back of her head. “You ready?” he murmured against her hair.

“Why do you think he only called us here?” she asked in a whisper.

“Come on now, you aren’t a scaredy cat, are you? I saw you, little brawler, going to war with grizzlies and tigers to protect dragons. You turn killer when someone you care about is threatened. Everything is going to be okay.” But his voice wavered on that last part.

Winter turned and kissed his knuckles, then let him lead her to Kane’s cabin. Logan knocked so hard the door rattled, but that was just him. Big, dominant man who didn’t know his own strength sometimes. Except with her. He turned gentle when he touched her.

“Come in,” Kane clipped out.

Logan pushed the door open and stepped aside, allowing Winter in first.

Rowan and Kane sat at the kitchen table facing them with a pair of blue folders in front of them. When Kane had invited her to be a part of the crew, he’d pulled her registration papers from one just like those.

Winter inhaled sharply with hope.

Roe was smiling, and her eyes were dancing like she couldn’t wait to spill secrets.

“Have a seat,” Kane murmured.

Logan pulled out Winter’s seat for her, then took his own right beside her. He took a deep inhale and rested his palm on Winter’s thigh under the table to help steady her. Or perhaps he was trying to steady himself. He’d been touching her a lot over the last couple of days. Touching her, holding her hand, stroking her hair, brushing her cheek, neck, shoulder… It all seemed to settle his bear.

“Ben called me,” Kane said low as he fingered one of the folders. “He asked me a favor. He asked that I spare Logan’s life, and he said he thought in doing so, I would be sparing your life.” He lifted dragon green eyes to Winter and gave her a small smile. “I know the feeling, Winter. I know what that mark on Logan’s arm means, and I know what you asked my mate. You’re bonded, as I’m bonded to Rowan, and the thought of losing your other half is unbearable. Am I close?”

Dipping her emotional gaze to the table, Winter nodded. “He’s mine to protect.”

“Is she yours to protect?” Kane asked Logan.

“Yes.”

Rowan shoved a folder toward her. “Winter, you already have your invite to the crew. Here is the rest of what you need. And a gift.”

Kane said softly, “The gift isn’t much, but it’s a big deal for me.”

Winter opened the folder where there was another copy of crew registration paperwork, as well as mobile home options. One was a singlewide trailer with a porch and wooden shingles covering the outside. It looked homey. The other was a doublewide trailer that looked just the same, only bigger. And stuffed into a clear plastic sleeve in the center was a black keychain. It had a bear paw cut-out.

“Is this a bottle opener?” Winter asked, plucking it from the folder. It had an inscription.
Blackwing Crew.

“We have matching ones,” Rowan said excitedly.

“Look, I didn’t want to be an alpha,” Kane said, frowning. “I know I was hard on you, but look at what the A-Team did. They almost ended my mate’s life.” He didn’t mention his own, like it didn’t matter. “The rest of the D-Team is still under consideration, but I’m not ready to pull the trigger on anyone but you two. Winter, you stood over us and took blow after blow just to keep us breathing. And Logan, you came in and saved us all. That’s the kind of loyalty I want in my mountains. I thought I could just get away with it being Rowan and me for always and fuck the world, you know? But it seems a crew would offer us protection I didn’t realize we needed. And also friendship. Rowan needs that, and maybe so do I.” Kane cleared his throat and flicked the other folder across the table to Logan.

Logan looked completely stunned. Slowly, he opened the folder, and there was a copy of registration paperwork, the same mobile home plans, and the same keychain.

Winter’s face crumpled, and her eyes burned with tears. In this moment, it felt like all of the dreams she didn’t even realize she had were coming true. “You won’t kill him then?” she asked in a broken voice.

“Never.” Kane leveled Logan with a look. “Do you understand? Never will I, or my mate, kill you. If you join my crew, you try. You get steady. You gain control of your bear, and no excuses either, because I know what it takes to get a monster back under control. It’s hard every day, but Rowan keeps me fighting.” Kane tipped his head toward Winter. “Let your mate keep you fighting, too. Sign that paperwork, and you will be agreeing to never bring up an honorable death again. It’s an oath to keep going, and to own your life again. I don’t give a shit about temporary crew members. I care about the future of my mountains, of my make-shift family. I care that you and Winter will be there for our future children as they grow up. I care about being there for your future cubs. I care about building a community I can depend on. I haven’t had that before.” Kane blew out a steadying breath. “Winter Donovan, do you accept our terms?”

How could she not? How could she turn down such a beautiful promise? No longer would she be Winter of Nowhere. From here on, she would be Winter of the Blackwing Crew. She would have a home, a family, a steady future, and most importantly, she would have Logan by her side for always. “Yes, Alpha. I would be honored to be a Blackwing.”

“And you, Logan Furrow?” Kane asked. “Do you accept our terms?”

Logan was watching Winter, his eyes so full of emotion it threatened to overwhelm her. “Day by day?” he asked her softly.

Winter melted against his side, right under his arm where he always made her feel safe and warm. She couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. “Day by day.”

Logan swallowed hard and dragged his silver gaze to Kane. “Yes, Alpha.”

A slow smile stretched Kane’s face. “Logan and Winter, welcome to the Blackwing Crew.”